MP Singh wrong about GATE programme

THE EDITOR: I have taken note of an article in your newspaper of January 25, 2004, where Mr Ganga Singh, MP, expressed concerns that the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE) Programme may be a barrier to excellence in education.

I wish to advise Mr Singh and others of like mind that their concerns are entirely misplaced. In fact, GATE is designed to remove the barriers that currently prevent many of our citizens from accessing higher education. It should be well known that the Dollar for Dollar programme suffers from a number of deficiencies, because it is restricted to courses offered in public institutions and it only covers half of the tuition expenses. These deficiencies limit the number of beneficiaries and also restrict the reach of the Dollar for Dollar Programme.

In contrast, the GATE Programme is designed as a true gateway to human development, because it is designed to provide the necessary financing to allow every citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, regardless of their status or income group, to pursue higher education, thus making higher education accessible to all. The GATE plan removes the inequities in the Dollar for Dollar Programme, since in addition to automatically covering 50 percent of tuition expenses for all students, GATE will create a system for payment by Government of the full tuition expenses of needy students from lower income groups. Needy students will thus receive a waiver of up to 100 percent of their tuition expenses. The GATE Programme will also expand government assistance to students in private institutions, which will allow access for all to higher education.

I wish to assure the population through your newspaper that the criteria for access to the new gateway to higher education will be transparent and equitable, and that noone will be denied assistance for their tuition expenses under the new GATE Programme. You should appreciate that in order to achieve our objective of becoming a developed country by the year 2020, we must as a country significantly increase the participation of our people in higher education programmes from the existing rate of ten percent to a rate in excess of 20 percent. The only way to do this is through broad-based initiatives such as GATE, which are designed to encourage all of our citizens, regardless of their background or affiliation, to improve themselves through a process of continuing education and training.

COLM IMBERT
Minister of Tertiary Education